


young.

by carrotstix



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Vax'ildan-centric, Vex'ahlia-centric, twinsies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 20:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13748526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrotstix/pseuds/carrotstix
Summary: They are young, but they are siblings. They are family, they are best friends, they are twins. Together, they are four halves that make up one whole.or: Vex, Vax, and the nature of their youth





	young.

**Author's Note:**

> tbh, i've been trying to write vexleth for the past week or so but everytime i tried it became more about vex and vax instead, so i just... gave in and steered into the skid?? anyway, i have no real justification for this, so... enjoy?

They are young.

They are young, and Vax squeezes his sister’s hand tight, a nearly white-knuckled grip and really, he should be too young to feel like this. He is a child, and he should be at home with his mother, safe and warm and happy. Instead, he stands beside his twin, their fingers intertwined, and stares up at the man who is supposed to be his father.

The man, of course, takes them in with a sort of disdain, taking in their half-human faces, their palms locked together between them, and he mutters something to the man beside him. Without another word, he walks away, and the stranger that is their father leaves them with the stranger whose name they don’t even know. Another person who, clearly, finds a way to dislike them purely for their blood, for the fact

Bitterly, Vax thinks that isn’t even their own fault, but their father’s. It was his decision to love a human, for however short a time he did, and half their blood is his. It is fifty percent his fault that they are four halves instead of two wholes.

As if sensing his thoughts, his sister turns to him. “We’ll be okay,” Vex says, eyebrows knitting themselves together. “We’ll be okay, Vax. We have each other.”

(She is too young to have to be saying this. They are too young to only have each other. And yet.

She has to anyway.)

-

They are young, and they are motherless.

They stand, two mirror images, in the burned out remains of their childhood home in Byroden. The walls and the roof and the floor is now all ash, as is anything left of their innocence.

The people left in the town, the survivors, give them the news. The twins are half-elves, yes, and while they may not have been the town darlings, they were still children. The woman who gives them the news looks sad, her face fallen in a sort of grief that follows tragedy, but Vex and Vax have the sort of schooled stone-face look, blank stares and lips drawn into thin lines.

The second they’re alone, however, the facade drops. They reach for each other at the same time, falling together in a heartbreaking sort of hug. It’s the kind where they’re both trying their best to keep the other together, but it’s hard to balance two sticks against each other when they can’t stop slipping and there’s no other support to speak of.

They try anyway.

-

They are young, and they are wild.

They find themselves going from free, unattached young adults to adventurers, exploring the forests and the cities and the tunnels of the land with a party of other, rather… interesting people.

They start out strangers. A boy with shock white hair and guns, a druid girl with a bright smile. A goliath with fists and a booming voice, a dragonborn with magic. Two gnomes who are both bright-eyed but yet so different.

By all rights, they should just be a party, a few driven characters all somehow working towards the same goal. It shouldn’t be anything more, not when Vex and Vax are used to only trusting in themselves, only believing in each other. And yet, what was supposed to be only a party, what was supposed to be temporary, becomes friends.

Then, it becomes family.

-

They are young, and Vax offers his life for his sister’s soul.

They are young, but they are siblings. They are family, they are best friends, they are twins. Together, they are four halves that make up one whole.

What else was he supposed to do?

-

He was young.

Granted, they didn’t feel young anymore. They’d been through bloodbaths, they’ve suffered losses, but they were still young, in the grand scheme of their lives. They had more to do, more to see. They were supposed to be together until the end.

(In a way, they were. Not in the way they should have been.)

His sister clutches him, his neck wet with her tears as he presses his nose into the her shoulder, crying himself. It is hard to let go, when he knows that this will be the last time he ever holds her like this. He will be moving on, and she will still be here, and they have never been apart for this long.

The rest of her life is a very long time to be seperated.

One second he is holding her, and the next, he is gone. There is a small scattering of raven feathers around her feet, and without his arms around her, keeping her steady, she stumbles away from them. Her hand comes up to her mouth, covering a sob, and when Percy places a hand on her shoulder, she jolts away like she’s been burned. Palm still over her lips, she looks up at meets Keyleth’s red eyes, tear tracks on her cheeks, and Vex feels like she's going to be sick.

 _I did this,_ she thinks. _He did this for me._

And then she screams.

-

She is young, and she has no body to bury.

There is nothing left of Vax to put in the ground. There is no shrine to him, no grave, no place to grieve. Instead, Vex carries what is left of her brother inside her heart, and it is a painful reminder that while hers still thumps on in her chest, his no longer beats in time with it.

She heals, but she never forgets. Never.

-

He is young.

Vex cradles her newborn son against her chest, grins at the tuft of dark hair on his head, his scrunched up nose and wrinkled face. There is definitely some of him that looks like Percy, but the shape of his face, his hair, they’re just like hers. It also makes them just like Vax’s.

Beside her, Percy is staring down at the child he holds, his eyes soft and his expression warm. “My son,” he murmurs, awed. “Vax’ildan Percival Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo.”

Vex looks up at Percy, something raw in her eyes, because hearing him say the name out loud, the full name that they’ve long since already agreed on, suddenly makes it seem so much more real. “I can- I want to name him after my brother, I do,” she whispers. “But I can’t- I can’t call him Vax.”

“We’ll call him Dan, then,” he says, like it’s easy for him, stroking his thumb across the baby’s cheek. He glances up, and when they lock eyes, he can see the water welling in her eyes, leans down to press his lips to her forehead.

“He should have been here,” she chokes out, and even though she can’t see it, she feels his lips turn up in a wry sort of smile against the crown of her head.

“He is here,” Percy assures her. “Vax is always going to be with you, because he is a part of you forever. And now, our son has a part of you, too, which means there’s a piece of Vax in him as well.”

Vex looks up at her husband, then looks down at their baby in her arms. He yawns, mouth stretching out into a perfect ‘o’ before his eyes blink open for the first time. Sure, he may already have Percy’s eye shape, but the color came straight from her, the exact same shade she’s seen not only in her reflection, but in her brother as well.

(She looks up at Percy, and she knows he’s right. Vax may have moved on, but he’s never gone.

He’s right here.)

**Author's Note:**

> find me at i-am-not-carrot.tumblr.com


End file.
